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2015 Barcelona Test 1
Romain Grosjean 1:24.067 (Day 4)}} The First 2015 Barcelona Test was the second official test session of the 2015 Formula One season. It took place between 19th and 22th February 2015 over four days. The circuit is the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. and did not attend the test. did not use the VJM08 for the test, instead using the VJM07. Driver running order *^ car. ** Wehrlein took over in Mercedes for the afternoon session of the opening day after Hamilton received an illness, while Pérez took over for Wehrlein in Force India. Hamilton took over for Rosberg in the afternoon of the second day to ensure that Rosberg's injured neck is not over-stressed. *† Williams decided to have both Massa and Bottas take part on the third day, rather than just Massa. Overview Report Day 1 Lewis Hamilton was only able to do 11 laps when he suffered an illness and could not take part for the rest of the day. Pascal Wehrlein, who was driving for Force India, was called to Mercedes to take over for Hamilton, while Sergio Pérez took Wehrlein's place in Force India. More drama occurred for McLaren when their car's power unit received a faulty seal on its MGU-K. Jenson Button could only complete 21 laps before the problem struck. The afternoon session was delayed for twenty minutes when Felipe Nasr caused a crash with Susie Wolff at Turn 5. Wolff was on an outlap, when Nasr, who was on a hotlap, was moving back onto the racing line in the braking zone after he stayed wide on the exit of Turn 4 so to overtake. The collision caused extensive damage to Nasr's car, including its rear wing which ripped off. Afterwards, Wolff claimed that the accident, where Nasr came across with his rear right hitting her front left and leaving her car with a damaged front suspension, was "an unnecessary coming together." Nasr explained: "She was driving quite slow in front of me. As I did Turn Four I caught up. I saw her moving to the right so I thought she knew I was coming. I committed myself to braking on the inside and as I was doing the braking I felt a big hit on my rear suspension so I think she never saw me coming." Wolff, however, blamed Nasr for the accident, saying: "I most certainly didn't apologise. In my mind I had nothing to apologise for. I stayed completely on my line. I didn't expect him to move across as aggressively as he did and he hit my front left with his rear. It was an unfortunate incident but one I couldn't have avoided. I went straight over to him and said: 'What the hell went on?' And he was a bit speechless, and so was I. It was one of those things that you think: 'How did that just happen?'" Pastor Maldonado set the fastest time of the day, with a time of 1:25.011, only 0.156 seconds ahead of Kimi Räikkönen. Day 2 On the previous day, Nico Rosberg received an inflamed nerve in his neck. However, he recovered in time for the second day, although Hamilton, who felt a bit better from his illness, took over for the afternoon so that the Mercedes team ensures Rosberg's neck is not over-stressed and is okay for running on the final day completely. Even without a new seal for the power unit's MGU-K component, Fernando Alonso was able to get the fifth fastest time of the day without any problems occurring on the McLaren MP4-30. Soon after midday, the red flags were brought out after Carlos Sainz, Jr. went into the gravel at Turn 9. Another stoppage occurred when Marcus Ericsson's car stopped on the start-finish line only half an hour before the testing of the second day ended. Daniel Ricciardo was fastest, with a time of 1:24.574, just 0.010 seconds ahead of Räikkönen. Day 3 Just in time for the third day, repaired McLaren's MGU-K. However, the team suffered more problems as Button's car came to a halt on the track after losing all of its power only 90 minutes after the start of the test. He was forced to spend four hours away from the track before being able to do nine more laps, but with slower power. His car stopped again at the the pit exit soon before the ending of the session, but it did not stop him from doing a brief final run. Originally, Williams was going to have only Felipe Massa run on the third day, but they later decided to have Massa run for the morning session with Valtteri Bottas taking over for the afternoon session. Though Bottas spent most of his time doing practices on his pit stops, Massa was slightly quicker. Wehrlein set a time of 1:27.333 between the two Williams drivers while driving for Force India as scheduled. Hamilton managed to set the third fastest time of 1:26.076 for Mercedes while still recovering from his illness, though he stated: "It was a hard day out there physically, but I'll make sure I'm better for next week and come back stronger. The biggest issue at the moment is actually getting the tyres working properly. There's temperature in them but they just don't seem to ever be in the operating window. Hopefully when we see warmer temperatures they'll be better. The car itself feels solid and we've been good on reliability. There are areas we can improve on - but we're taking it one step at a time and each step so far has been forwards, not backwards, so it's been quite positive." Ericsson came fourth after spending most of the morning in the pit garage due to problems with his gearbox. The morning session was red-flagged at the start when Sebastian Vettel slid off the track into the gravel during his outlap, after the circuit was hit by a brief shower. However, he was able to complete 105 laps for Ferrari and finish fifth, a bit quicker than Daniil Kvyat. He explained: "This morning I was sleeping a bit and, coming out of the pits on cold tyres, I spun. The least I could do was help the guys clean all the gravel out of the car." Maldonado was again fastest, with a time of 1:24.438 on super soft tyres. Max Verstappen finished in second place, 0.391 seconds behind Maldonado. Day 4 The session on the fourth and final day had six red flags, including one caused when Sainz crashed at Turn 3, and had to be taken to hospital. Speaking afterwards, he explained: "It was a really good day until I crashed. Unfortunately I made a mistake at Turn 3, which is not the best place to do that, because the barriers are close at that point. I'd rather crash in the test than in Race 1, so I have learned something from it and now we turn the page, move on and think about next week's test here. There are many positives to take from this test. I was a different driver in the car and I felt much more confident here in Barcelona. Everything went really smoothly and I felt we had made a big step forward with the car from Day 2 to Day 4." Following their problems from the third day, McLaren had a new component prepared. However, soon before the lunch break, the red flags came out again when the right side of Alonso's car hit the wall after exiting Turn 3. He was transported to the circuit's medical centre before being taken to hospital as well, with McLaren saying: "He was conscious and spoke with the doctors." Alonso, however, could not compete for the afternoon session, as he remained in hospital overnight. McLaren stated on 23 February: "Our findings indicate that the accident was caused by the unpredictably gusty winds at that part of the circuit at that time, and which had affected other drivers similarly (e.g. Carlos Sainz Jnr)." However, on 26 February, Ron Dennis reported that Alonso "was unconscious for a relatively short period of time. We could hear him breathing but no other sounds." Alonso later sent a video message on 27 February to say that he is "completely fine." It was later reported that he was driving at 134 mph as shown on GPS date shown to all of the teams. At first, Button was going to take over for the afternoon session, but McLaren decided to not run at all. Nico Hülkenberg's first appearance in 2015 was cut short when his car had problems with its power unit, only being able to get the eighth fastest time after completing only 36 laps. Nasr was unable to do a drive in the morning session because of unspecified problems which led to staying in the garage for long periods. He managed to finish fourth in the afternoon session, although he got stranded out on the track a few minutes before the end of the day. Despite having a spin on cold tyres at the start of the day, Rosberg finished second on mediums. His participation on the final day also gave some time for Hamilton to recover from his illness. Romain Grosjean set the fastest time of the day, being 1:24.067 on super soft tyres. Williams concentrated on Bottas doing long runs after having 40 pit stops on the third day, and he finished in fifth place. Best times By day By driver * car. Most laps by a driver: Max Verstappen ( ), 223. Most laps by a team: , 446. Most laps in a day: Daniel Ricciardo ( ), 143 (day 2). Times Day One, 19 February Source: * car. Day Two, 20 February Source: * car. Day Three, 21 February Source: * car. Day Four, 22 February Source: * car. Notes Category:Pre-season testing Category:2015 Formula One Season